Ivory Coast's defiant leader near ouster

IVORY COAST

Marco Chown Oved and Rukmini Callimachi, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, AP

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Issiaka Diakhite, 26, who says he took up arms after his parents were killed by Laurent Gbagbo loyalists in his home town of Daloa in November, reacts as soldiers loyal to Alassane Ouattara man a checkpoint at one of the principal entrances to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Ivory Coast's entrenched strongman Gbagbo huddled in a bunker at his home and was exploring different options for his surrender, officials said Tuesday, as forces backing the country's democratically elected leader seized the residence. less

Issiaka Diakhite, 26, who says he took up arms after his parents were killed by Laurent Gbagbo loyalists in his home town of Daloa in November, reacts as soldiers loyal to Alassane Ouattara man a checkpoint at ... more

Photo: Rebecca Blackwell, AP

Ivory Coast's defiant leader near ouster

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

(04-06) 04:00 PDT Abidjan, Ivory Coast --

Surrounded by troops backing Ivory Coast's democratically elected leader, strongman Laurent Gbagbo huddled Tuesday with his family in a bunker and played his final hand, trying to wrest last-ditch concessions as he negotiated the terms of his surrender.

Down the hill from his luxurious compound, dozens of Gbagbo's soldiers were seen entering a church where they stripped off their uniforms and abandoned their weapons. Earlier, Gbagbo's three top generals said they had ordered their men to stop fighting, the United Nations said in a statement.

Elementary school in Oakland opens time capsule from 1927San Francisco Chronicle

Brides of March walk through San FranciscoSan Francisco Chronicle

WildCare rescues Western scrub jay from rodent glue trapWildCare

The Regulars: The CarpenterJessica Christian

Massive fire in San Francisco's North BeachDavid Essling

The developments spell game over for a man who refused to accept defeat in last year's election and took his country to the precipice of civil war in his bid to preserve power. His security forces are accused of using cannons, 60mm mortars and 50-caliber machine guns to mow down opponents in the four months since his rival, Alassane Ouattara, was declared the winner of the contested vote.

Choi Young-jin, the top U.N. envoy in Ivory Coast said by telephone that Gbagbo's surrender was "imminent."

"He accepted (the) principle of accepting the results of the election, so he doesn't have many cards in his hands," Choi said. "The key element they are negotiating is where Mr. Gbagbo would go."

Then, just as he appeared to be on the brink of stepping down, Gbagbo, in his first interview in months, defiantly insisted he had no intention of surrendering power.

"I won the election and I'm not negotiating my departure," he told French TV station LCI by telephone from his bunker. "I find it absolutely incredible that the entire world is playing this ... game of poker."

Veteran observers of this nation on Africa's western edge say the turn of events could have been taken from a biography of Gbagbo.

In Abidjan, he has long been called "Le Boulanger," French for "the baker," because he rolls people in flour - a reference to a popular expression meaning to manipulate and deceive others.

"I think he's playing for time," said a senior diplomat who has closely followed events and spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been cleared to speak to the media. "His aim is always to buy himself just one more day."

Before dawn, forces loyal to Ouattara seized the presidential residence where Gbagbo has been holed up, moving in after the United Nations agreed to act on a Security Council resolution passed last week giving their peacekeepers the right to take out Gbagbo's heavy artillery.

Ouattara has urged his supporters to take Gbagbo alive and unharmed. He is acutely aware that while he won last year's election with 54 percent of the vote, Gbagbo received 46 percent and still commands a strong following.